September in Chiang Mai

Here are some random pictures form last month. 

One of the things I missed so much this summer while we were in the US was my Chaa Nom Yen! Yum. In the US it's called Thai Ice tea and is the most amazing drink ever.

NinjaGo has become HUGE here. And when that happens in Thailand (or Asia in general) fake toys are gonna pop up on the market. So they are selling this stuff everywhere. It's basically impossible to find the real LEGO NinjaGo (they are only sold in one or two stores in the entire city and are 3x more expensive than in the US). But now they have all of these knock-offs that they sell everywhere. On the street, in small sidewalk stores, outside of schools, etc.. It's pretty amazing because they look EXACTLY like the real things. Seriously. They are also super cheap. Sorry LEGO, with this stuff here, I can't see your "real" stuff being bought in this country.

Micaiah actually got a few sets for his birthday. Seriously, they look exactly like the real thing. But there is a difference. You can tell they are cheaply made and they just don't stick together well.

Micaiah's Kindergarten class has 16 boys and 1 poor little girl. The teachers were noticing that the boys were forming groups/clicks and were excluding other boys sometimes. So they spent a few days talking about friendship and how it's important to be kind and play with anyone who wants to play with us. They also organized a picnic where all of the kids brought food to share with everyone else. It's pretty cool that the teachers saw an issue and actually made such an effort to teach the kids through it.

It was so much fun to start going to Chiang Mai FC games again. They actually won their division and are now playing in the playoffs. During the last game of the regular season they brought out the trophy and had a huge ceremony. It's still so much fun to see new aspects of Thai culture.

My friend and I were getting a pedicure. They cost about $6 here so we go once every three months or so. The lady was sweet and painted Sora's toes too. She thought it was awesome.

This is my favorite thing McDonald's offers here that it doesn't offer in the US. It's a frozen coke float. Basically, a coke icee stuffed with ice cream. YUM!!!

I was so excited to find graham cracker crumbs here recently for the first time...until I saw the price. One bag cost almost $15!

Sora has been really into making food for me lately. If I'm working on my computer or reading on the couch she'll just stay there for hours asking me what I want, writing it down, and then cooking it for me. It's really so cute.

Orin's new chore is to wash the dishes. I don't make him wash all of the dishes (it would take hours) but I just want him to help some of them. He does a pretty good job!

Our water was shut off for about 24 hours and when it came back it was like this...the picture doesn't do it justice. It was disgusting. I've seen yellowish water before. This was almost black. Needless to say, we used our drinking water for showers and washing hands/dishes for a few days until it cleared up.

This is the boys new FAVORITE fruit. It's watermelon but it's yellow. I'm pretty sure it tastes very similar to red watermelon, but it's amazing how much novelty can make things taste better. :)

I love Sora's crazy hair. It makes her look like she belongs on an 80's workout video.

Our beloved Maebaan, Naa, decided to move down to Bangkok to work selling chicken with some extended family. She has worked for us three 1/2 have days per week for 18 months, babysitting Sora (at first while we studied Thai and then on days when I worked or needed to be out of the house) and also helped with some cleaning and laundry. She was incredibly sweet, hardworking and reliable. Sora loved her. When we got back from the US she told us she was leaving in 1 week! We pray that she does well in Bangkok. We've also been blessed to get a new, also very great Maebaan.

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